City Kicks Off A Year Of Sustainable Events Hoping To Engage The Entire Community

Park City has the most ambitious climate goals in all North America. To help reach those, City Council has implemented a program they’re calling My Sustainable Year. It kicks off this week with the PC MARC Lunch and Learn on Wednesday. Carolyn Murray has this:

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The Lunch and Learn is the first event in a year of public outreach programs designed to engage and educate everyone in the Park City community. The objective, said Sustainability Manager, Celia Peterson is to provide behavioral practices each citizen can take to make Park City a 100 percent sustainable community.

“So, here’s a fun fact for you. If everyone in the world lived like the average American, we would need five plant earths. So, through this program, we’re going to try to get our actions more in line with our community values because we know in Park City, people really value nature and the planet but there’s a bit of discordance around how we live our lives. My Sustainable Year is a program that tackles one aspect of life per month. They say it takes about a month to change a habit. So, we’re really going to focus on different aspects of life throughout the year.”

Peterson said the program will focus on events and the social aspect of sustainable living practices. The idea is to bring people together, make it fun and focus on one practice at time. The first session will cover the basics of sustainability and how it relates to personal choices as well as an overview of the years’ events.

“Then, in February we’re going to focus on home and your home life and everything you can do at home. In March we’ll be talking about energy, how we use energy and what the whole energy system looks like. In April, we’ll be focusing on water. We know water is a huge issue in Utah, so we really want to hit that one early so people can plan for the dry summer months. In May, we’ll be talking about health. How climate change and your personal behaviors impact your own health and then also community health. In June, we will be talking about transportation, how we move around. In July, we’ll talk about our connection to the land so really looking at the flora and fauna that surrounds us. In August, we’ll be talking about food and food choices. In September, we’ll be focusing on air. October is looking at business and economy. November will be all about stuff. We’ll introduce some concepts about the circular economy. It’s big in Europe. It’s kind of a technical term. It’s basically like getting our consumption habits more in line with what goes in equals what comes out. And then, December, we’ll be focusing on values.

Peterson said even though Park City is a small town, the world is watching.

“We’ve got a lot of really big things lined up for this year. And yes, Park City only has 7000-ish residents, but we do have a lot of attention and eyes on us with our ambitious goals. I mean, they’re cities around the world that are watching what we’re doing because we’ve got such ambitious goals and we’re already doing it, we’re setting an example and kind of finding the pathway for other communities to follow. So, we’re making waves basically. Yes, we’re a small town but we can impact others by proving this can be done. And, really clearing the way for others to follow along with us.”

The kick off for the My Sustainable Year program will be at the MARC Lunch and Learn at noon on Wednesday.